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Room

7937843This week I am reviewing the novel Room by Emma Donoghue. The book tells the story of a young boy and his mother imprisoned in a single room. Absolutely heartbreaking and gut-wrenching, this book stays with you long after you put it down.
emma-donoghue-illo_2373764b  Emma Donoghue was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1969. She is the youngest of eight children and her father was an academic and literary critic. She graduated from University College Dublin with a Bachelor of Arts degree and earned a PhD in English from Girton College, Cambridge.
Her first novel, Stir Fry, was published in 1994. Room was published in August 2010. New York Times named it one of their six best fiction books in 2010. It was awarded the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Irish Book Award. Emma Donoghue wrote the screenplay for the book’s transformation into a film. MV5BMjE4NzgzNzEwMl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMTMzMDE0NjE@._V1_UY1200_CR90,0,630,1200_AL_Here’s the link for the film trailer. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her work. She now lives in London, Ontario with her life partner, Christine Roulston and their two children.

Jack was born and raised in a twelve-by-twelve room with his mother, Ma. He has never known any different, the room is his home, his whole world. There is a bed, a rug, a wardrobe, a TV, and a plant. In one corner there is a microwave, refrigerator, oven, and a table. This is his sole landscape of his childhood. Because he never knew any different, Jack is a happy kid, who accepts his life as it is. They exercise by walking in circles around the room or jumping on the bed. They sing, read, and play games. Jack’s mom was kidnapped from a parking lot when she was nineteen. Her kidnapper, whom Jack and her refer to as Old Nick, locked her in a shed in his backyard. She eventually became pregnant with Jack and raised him in the shed. When he was born, she made the decision not to explain the situation to him. He believes the whole world is in the room and that the world he sees on TV, is the same as outer space.Room

Writing in Jack’s voice is the decision that defines the novel. Jack describes only what he sees and hears, like a child would. His childhood innocence in the face of absolute depravity emphasizes the despair of the situation. Donoghue brilliantly captures the language or a child, the observations, the weird little obsession, and tantrums. When Old Nick comes each night, Jack hides himself in the wardrobe and counts the creaks of the bed, “till he makes that gaspy sound and stops.” Donoghue allows the readers to make the leap between Jack’s innocent observations and the harshness of reality in the room. Kidnap, confinement, and rape are told from the point of view of a five-year old, who’s having a great time. This limited perspective sets up a contradiction, for Ma Room is a place of terror, but for Jack, it’s the only home he knows.screen shot 2015-09-22 at 11.04.48 am

Right after Jack’s 5th birthday, Old Nick loses his job. Ma, worried that he will abandon them to starve in Room, plans an escape. Before this can happen she must tell Jack the truth about the world outside. This completely uproots Jack’s life by tossing out all that he previously thought of as fact. In the span of a few days, Ma tries to teach Jack everything about the outside world, serving as a sped-up representation of growing up. In a surprisingly problem-free escape, Jack and Ma leave Room for the first time and enter or re-enter the real world. Instead of ending the book after the great escape, Donoghue displays the true horror of the experience, by questioning ‘what happens next?’ directly.screen shot 2015-09-22 at 11.06.05 am

After their escape, Ma and Jack begin their assimilation into the real world. Their escape and captivity is headline news, their upcoming court case elicits media frenzy; they have become celebrities of sorts. Here, Ma and Jack have their first separation, sleeping in different rooms, not spending every second of every day together. This comes as a betrayal to Jack. The mother-child bond is exaggerated here, and Jack does not want to leave the nursery. This serves as an exaggerated representation of motherhood, when the mother and the child have to leave the bubble they created for themselves and enter the real world. For Jack, Room represented safety, while Outside is where life is truly terrifying, where people are strangers, where he can’t be with Ma 24/7, and where bees actually sting.

In the post-escape part of the novel, Donoghue introduces a satirical element. All Jack knows is Room; he’s an alien taking his first steps onto the real planet. Jack makes comments on the way the world works from the point of view of someone, who has never experienced it. He never wanted to go outside and make friends and play on a playground, and now he’s being practically forced, to be grateful for the freedom he was molded to live without.

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In the end, we see Jack finally adjusting to Outside, becoming an individual. But when we leave Ma, Donoghue leaves the readers with the uncomfortable sense that she will merely be moving from prison to prison for the rest of her life.

Room is one of those books that stays in your head long after you’ve finished reading it. Each time I read it or examine it, I always find something new that changes my perception on what Donoghue means and to me that’s what makes a special book.

2 thoughts on “Room

  1. ara5310

    This was an excellent post. You gave a great description of the novel and I was very intrigued by the story. In fact I have been wanting see the movie. I have watched the trailer multiple times and it looks like an amazing movie. I am not an avid reader so I probably will not read the book, but I could only imagine that the book is as good as the movie or even better. The trailer of Room gave me the same kind of feel as the movie, Short Term Twelve. That is a high quality film and I am sure I will enjoy room when I see it. Can’t wait for your next post.

  2. kzw5344

    Lexi, this blog post was so captivating! The plot of Room is really heartbreaking like you said. To imagine growing up contained in a small room with barely any items and then having to face the reality of the real world is terrifying. I like when you described how the author writes Jack’s point of view with innocence to contrast the horrors of reality, and how she uses satire and compares Jack to an alien. Your blog post has made me very intrigued and I will definitely be picking up this book!

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